Walmart

Reorganization won't result in job loss

Dock facility will be closed but associates have accepted other positions

Walmart is not eliminating jobs in Grove City, although it is closing its consolidation dock facility.

Despite a letter sent to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services advising the agency of company plans to terminate the employment of 73 people at the consolidation dock facility of its distribution center at 3880 Southwest Blvd., Walmart General Manager Mitch Hall said no one is losing their job when the facility closes between Sept. 15 and Oct. 1.

"The associates are not getting laid off," he said. "They have accepted positions (at the distribution center) with a comparable rate of pay."

Hall said the move is part of a reorganization at the distribution center. The consolidation dock facility, a 50-door building that is separate from the rest of the distribution facility, is where Walmart sorts supplies it has purchased before shipping them out to various distribution centers.

"We've outgrown the building," Hall said. "It's no longer cost-effective to do it on this location."

The consolidation dock facility will be closed and the work outsourced to a third-party group that has the facilities to do that work, Hall said.

Not much is changing for the affected employees, he added, except they will no longer be working in a separate building at the distribution center.

The affected employees are mostly loaders and unloaders but also include yard drivers, clerks and floor managers.

The letter sent to the Department of Job and Family Services, Hall said, was required under Worker Adjustment Retraining Notification (WARN) Act because of the closing of the building. The WARN Act, according to information from the department's website, requires most employers with at least 50 employees to notify the Department of Job and Family Services of mass layoffs and plant closings 60 calendar days in advance.

"The way that (the letter is) worded, it would appear we're laying off 73 employees," Hall said. "Nobody's losing their jobs."

Walmart's Grove City distribution center is 1.2 million square feet in size and has one of the company's largest distribution volumes, shipping to 109 stores, 105 of which are supercenters.